Football stadiums can give you a taste of what heaven might be like

I have never been to Twickenham rugby ground, but I have been to Liverpool’s home ground: Anfield.  I’ve stood with several hundred fans in the ‘away’ section of the terraced ‘Kop’, shivering and cheering by turn, willing the team of the mid 1980s to (please) repeatedly score, so we didn’t have to endure a miserable rehash of the game all evening. If they won, the subsequent verbal dissection of the game would, at least, be a cheerful one.

You don’t have to be a big football fan to understand that the atmosphere generated by a crowd with a single passion is very different from simply going to a static exhibition or a museum

You don’t have to be a big football fan to understand that the atmosphere generated by a crowd with a single passion is very different from simply going to a static exhibition or a museum. Alternatively, take the most exciting experience of a social outing with your friends: the anticipation, the journey that culminates in the event itself. 

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We’ve all had special days or evenings with our like-minded friends that bring back fond memories. Now multiply that by several thousand and you begin to have an inkling of the visceral experience that is being present for a Premier League football match. Just watching on television from the comfort of your living room can still communicate a sliver of that excitement, even to the most non-football oriented individual.

Inside the stadium, the sheer noise and crush of people is breath-taking.  Fans surge into the seating and standing areas, clothed in the garb of the team they support.  Scarves, caps, woolly hats, hoodies and jackets emblazoned with the appropriate logos are worn with pride by young and old alike.  Home-made banners are waved, etched with slogans that communicate support for an individual player, a trophy they’ve already won or the town from which they’ve travelled to join the throng.

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Perhaps the greatest thrill is when the crowd begins to sing. Every club has it’s own chants and songs; some are designed to deliberately irk the opposition, goading them to respond; others are anthems that stir the soul.  Being part of a crowd of several thousand people joining together in You’ll Never Walk Alone was a strangely moving experience for me. I didn’t know all the words, but it didn’t matter.  In that moment I was part of something much bigger than myself.

Is this, I may have found myself wondering, a taste of what heaven will be like?

Is this, I may have found myself wondering, a taste of what heaven will be like? A vast crowd united in their focus, not on a carefully tended pitch, but on the Saviour who effectively paid the entry fee for us to be there. Here we’ll be more participants than spectators, and thoroughly exuberant!

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We’ll also be free of the fears and anxieties that plague us while we’re mortal.  With tears, sickness and death banished forever, we’ll have bodies that don’t tire or ache like these ones do. Captivated by the protagonists of heaven, we won’t be distracted by who’s wearing what, or insignia that indicate a difference of allegiance. The tribal aspect of football and denominations will have been eradicated completely – swallowed up in the dazzling light of holiness, as earthly shadows slip away forever. So, unlike those football matches we won’t be divided into opposing teams, willing the rivals to lose. There won’t be any! There, ‘every nation, tribe, people and language’ will be represented and united in cheering for the Champion of champions (Revelation 7:9).

I don’t know how we’ll know the words, but just imagine joining with the angels and the saints of old as countless voices meld and harmonise in grateful wonder and worship of the King of Kings.  That will be a thrill that far exceeds the one to be found in any football stadium.